[78-L] One person's opinions...?!^

[Tom]

<< Is African American the final word? >>
 
No, as stated previously, refer to African Americans or people of color the way in which they want to be referred to.
 
I have African American friends who refer to themselves as "black" in one sentence and as "African American" in the next. So, apparently, either term is fine with them. However, in the hierarchy of Type A overachievers, if you listen to the speech patterns of people like Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey (to cite just two examples) most of them refer to themselves as "African American" pretty consistently.
 
I have African American friends refer to Obama using other terms as well, which are terms of genuine affection and endearment, such as "Im so glad we got one of the brothers in the White House. We need someone to get us out of this fucked-up mess that W got us into. It's time for a change and we need one of the brothers to do the job".
 
"Brother" as a colloquialism "soul brother".
 
The brothers, of course, can get by with that. You and I can't. That sorta thing. lol
 


--- On Sat, 1/24/09, Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

From: Julian Vein <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [78-L] One person's opinions...?!^
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009, 1:11 AM

Tom wrote:
> Why is it that some people have a problem referring to people of color the
way they would like to be referred to?
>  
> The word "negro" was the correct word choice for decades, until
the end of the civil rights era in the 1960's. So that word -- the word
"negro" -- had been correct for, oh I dunno, 350 years or so. At about
that time, most African Americans wanted to be called "black" instead.
That lasted for a few decades. Now most African Americans prefer to be referred
to as, well, African Americans.
>  
> Listen to how role models within that community refer to themselves --
people like President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, for instance, refer to themselves
as African American.
>  
> We're talking once-in-a-generation changes in word choice here.
>  
> So why is that so problematic for some people to understand?
----------------------
I seem to recall that there have been several name changes over the decades:

Coloured people.
People of colour.
Negro.
Black.
African American.

These are names that have been used by those people themselves or, more 
probably, their self-appointed leaders (usually people who wish to climb 
to power on the backs of discontented--in this case--black workers). Is 
African American the final word?

      Julian Vein

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